Informal Habitat Day 2012 - November 16, 2012 The Planning: All the Informal classes will tour the YWCA facility and hopefully the kids will start thinking of ideas about how to help. It would be great to do a group brainstorm afterward. Third grade is using the idea of "community" since we have been working on that and human needs as well as needs within a community. We will all help during Habitat Day but it is the goal that each class or grade level will decide another way to help as well based on interests and what they saw as the most important needs/connections kids had -- and that this will go on throughout the year. It would be awesome to report out about this as Chautauqua as well.
Possible Essential Questions: What do we make sure the needs of all people are met? What are our habitats? (personal/human needs) How can we end hunger and homelessness in Columbus? What are the needs of people in our community? How do we “grow” socially consciousness citizens? How do our needs impact the environment? How can the environment (habitat/garden) help meet our needs?
Session Ideas:
Making fleece blankets in groups (K and 5 together) and about 4 kids per blanket kit. We are putting in for grants with service learning as well as PTO to get the kits. We will need parent volunteers along with Bonnie and Sherry to help facilitate.
Glazing bowls -- 3, 4 and 5 kids will be making ceramic bowls in Art with Gwen and Lou. The younger kids (and older since sometimes you need multiple coats) will glaze these. The hope is that we may have an "empty bowls" soup fundraiser later in the year or I am sure we can easily sell the bowls at a later time to fundraiser for whatever cause we settle on. Again, we are trying to get money for these supplies through grants.
Amy Byard will be reading picture books appropriate for the different age groups for one of the sessions. We have come up with a list of titles that we will be having Sarah and Amy review to identify the best ones to have her read (related to hunger, homelessness, poverty, etc.)
Stuffing kits -- we may try to get some toiletry items donated to make small kits for families at the YWCA. This is a possibly option for one session.
Mural -- Ashley -- maybe check with Alicia on this ... we had thought about a mural of some sort representing community or something...
Poverty or hunger simulation that is age appropriate (kids given different number of items and asked to compare, share etc. -- we are looking into ideas for this)
For the older kids .... there are some video clips from 60 Minutes and Mid Ohio Food Bank that we might get for Ellen and Kathy that we can show them ... kids being interviewed ... very poignant ... possible speaker from Mid-Ohio Food Bank .... etc.
Andrea Lusk is going to help us document some of that event and please take pictures on your field trip (if they are allowed).
Informal's Farmer's Market! Join us on October 8, 2010 in the Andover Courtyard from 1:45-3:30 PM for our own Farmer's Market. We'll be selling cookbooks, stationary, pots and seed packets AND Lydia's honey! We sold out!!Orders are still being taken for Garden Cookbooks-see your child's teacher for details! 10/8/2010
Third Annual Project Wildlife/Habitat Day! When: September 22, 2010 Focus: Farmer's Market! Where: 1/2nd grade Pod, Mrs. Lupton's Room and Mrs. Wilcox's Room. Join us as we learn more about Upper Arlington's Farmer's Market, the Mid Ohio Food Bank and Honey Bees. Mrs. Hastings, from Upper Arlington Public Library will be on hand with lots of good stories for telling and Mrs. Gibson will be helping us create "Habitat Music". We'll be creating garden inspired crafts to sell at our own Farmer's Market. All proceeds will benefit our habitat!
Informal 4th Grade Ice Cream Social in the Habitat! When: August 21st at 3:30 PM (Look for the tent!) If you're a Barrington Informal 4th grader and you read, wrote and practiced math facts according to our agreement, we owe you an ice cream sundae! Bring your journal, some good book titles and help us celebrate!
Dream Session #2- Come help us "dream" of what our habitat can be! When: May 12, 2010 ( coffee and donuts at 8:30 a.m., session starting at 9:00) Where: Upper Arlington City Schools Central Office 1950 North Mallway
Barrington Informal Honors the 40th Annual Earth Day, Thursday, April 22, 2010
Today we planted a Buckeye tree in our Barrington Habitat! All of the Informal classes were there to sing, read poetry, share posters and class happenings. It was like an outdoor mini-Chautauqua ! The tree was donated by the Jarrett Family and U.S. Bank. and is dedicated to Mrs. Benton's Buckeyes 2009-2010. Buckeye Tree Info found by Mrs. Benton:
So what's so special about buckeyes? Well, the name “Buckeye” came from the Native Americans who noticed that the glossy, chestnut-brown seeds with the lighter circular “eye” looked very similar to the eye of a buck (male) deer. The nut is a glossy brown color and very smooth. The nuts are contained in a spiny hull until they ripen in September. The hull opens and they fall to the ground. Many times there are multiple nuts in a hull. Native Americans roasted, peeled and mashed the buckeye nut, which they called “Hetuck,” into a nutritional meal. Early travelers carried the rare buckeye to the east with them and reported its medicinal properties. The nut of the buckeye tree is also considered to be a good luck charm if you carry it in your pocket. The hulls start to fall and break open in September. In fourth grade, we study Ohio History and the Buckeye Tree is the official tree of our state! As you know, it's also a name synonymous with The Ohio State University, the college to which our school is closely located. The Ohio State Tree **Ohio Buckeye, Aesculus glabra**
Size: small tree of central states, chiefly of Ohio and Mississippi Valley regions, 30’-50’ in height, 2’-3’ in diameter
Growth: grows best in deep fertile soils, will usually reach maturity in 60-80 years
Leaves: palmately compound with five nearly elliptical, serrate leaflets 4” - 6” long
Buds: large terminal bud (nonresinous)
Branching: stout limbs in opposite positioning
Bark: grey, scaly plates
Flowers: showy, pale white to greenish yellow, branched clusters 4” -6” long
Fruit (nut): 1” -2” seed capsule, somewhat spiny with 1-5 non-edible seeds (nuts) inside
Other information: also known a fetid buckeye, stinking buckeye. It is one of the first trees to leaf out in the spring and drops its leaves early in the fall. Fall leaf coloration is orange to red
Uses: today mostly pulp; in the past - furniture, crates, pallets, caskets, artificial human limbs
Folklore: nut is considered a good luck charm, relieves pain of arthritis and rheumatism, resembles the eye of the buck deer
State Champion Big Tree: circumference - 140”; height 77’ crown spread - 64’; location - Greenwich, Huron County
Fourth Annual Habitat Day/Project Day Makes the News
Barrington students dig into world of recycling, reusing
By MELISSA DILLEY
Published: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 11:47 PM EDT
Barrington Elementary School students learned the meaning behind the reduce, reuse, recycle message on Thursday, Oct. 13 as part of the program's fourth annual Preservation Day.
The day teaches students just another facet of their yearly essential question -- "How Can we Preserve tomorrow today?" -- to which every class throughout the year will be tied back.
"This overarching theme lets us layer learning and have a field trip day here at school instead of shuttling all the kids to different places," said Katie Benton, a third-and-fourth grade teacher and the day's coordinator.
"Our biggest hope on this day is for students to learn about protecting and observing our environment."
Students did take a field trip, though, to kick off the lesson. At the beginning of the school year, about 300 students traveled to Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio where they learned how landfills work.
Benton said students became interested especially in the idea of reusing items when they were shocked to see toys, furniture and clothing piled up at the landfill.
To build on what they already learned, representatives from Goodwill Columbus, the Franklin County Soil and Water Conservation District and Rumpke Recycling hosted activity sessions to teach students more about reusing and recycling on Thursday.
Teachers said students were immediately captivated at the start of the day by nationally known storyteller Kevin Cordi. His talk focused on the environment and explained ways to help care for the Earth.
In one session, students used gloves to sort through recycling bins that were full of items saved by teachers and parent volunteers for weeks. Many students said they have always recycled at home, but after sifting through the items themselves, they've learned to be more careful about what they throw in the recycling bin.
Some students found items such as bottle caps that weren't recyclable and others were faced with jugs that were filthy from not being rinsed out. Fourth-grader Kiki Lily's group found a piece of old bread in their pile.
"I didn't really get the concept of recycling as much before I learned about it," said fourth-grader Michael Mudrick.
"When we recycle things, we use the materials to make something else and it helps the environment instead of if we just through it in a landfill."
Barrington art teacher Alicia McGinty took a different approach with her used bottles. Instead of recycling them, she brought them to the classroom for students to build a work of art.
Older students cut the bottles into different shapes and each student was able to use paint or use markers to color the plastic pieces. Students used pictures of flowers as inspiration for the bottle pieces that McGinty said she and students will hang from different lengths of strings to make a Chihuly-esque sculpture that will hang near the school's garden.
Students in the progressive program will weave the essential question into each of their lessons throughout the year. Benton said the garden helps the students learn many of their lessons, and thanks to a grant from the Upper Arlington Education Foundation, it will grow this year to include a book cart with reading materials all about gardens and a shed that can house all the garden supplies.
"All of these components make their learning very authentic," Benton said. "They're actually interacting with each other and the Earth so we're not just telling them to do this and do that, they actually want to help preserve things."
The Planning:
All the Informal classes will tour the YWCA facility and hopefully the kids will start thinking of ideas about how to help. It would be great to do a group brainstorm afterward. Third grade is using the idea of "community" since we have been working on that and human needs as well as needs within a community. We will all help during Habitat Day but it is the goal that each class or grade level will decide another way to help as well based on interests and what they saw as the most important needs/connections kids had -- and that this will go on throughout the year. It would be awesome to report out about this as Chautauqua as well.
Possible Essential Questions:
What do we make sure the needs of all people are met?
What are our habitats? (personal/human needs)
How can we end hunger and homelessness in Columbus?
What are the needs of people in our community?
How do we “grow” socially consciousness citizens?
How do our needs impact the environment?
How can the environment (habitat/garden) help meet our needs?
Session Ideas:
Informal's Farmer's Market!
Join us on October 8, 2010 in the Andover Courtyard from 1:45-3:30 PM for our own Farmer's Market. We'll be selling cookbooks, stationary, pots and seed packets AND Lydia's honey! We sold out!!Orders are still being taken for Garden Cookbooks-see your child's teacher for details! 10/8/2010
Third Annual Project Wildlife/Habitat Day!
When: September 22, 2010
Focus: Farmer's Market!
Where: 1/2nd grade Pod, Mrs. Lupton's Room and Mrs. Wilcox's Room.
Join us as we learn more about Upper Arlington's Farmer's Market, the Mid Ohio Food Bank and Honey Bees.
Mrs. Hastings, from Upper Arlington Public Library will be on hand with lots of good stories for telling and Mrs. Gibson will be helping us create "Habitat Music". We'll be creating garden inspired crafts to sell at our own Farmer's Market. All proceeds will benefit our habitat!
Informal 4th Grade Ice Cream Social in the Habitat!
When: August 21st at 3:30 PM (Look for the tent!)
If you're a Barrington Informal 4th grader and you read, wrote and practiced math facts according to our agreement, we owe you an ice cream sundae! Bring your journal, some good book titles and help us celebrate!
Dream Session #2- Come help us "dream" of what our habitat can be!
When: May 12, 2010
( coffee and donuts at 8:30 a.m., session starting at 9:00)
Where: Upper Arlington City Schools Central Office
1950 North Mallway
Barrington Informal Honors the 40th Annual Earth Day, Thursday, April 22, 2010
Today we planted a Buckeye tree in our Barrington Habitat! All of the Informal classes were there to sing, read poetry, share posters and class happenings. It was like an outdoor mini-Chautauqua !
The tree was donated by the Jarrett Family and U.S. Bank. and is dedicated to Mrs. Benton's Buckeyes 2009-2010.
Buckeye Tree Info found by Mrs. Benton:
So what's so special about buckeyes? Well, the name “Buckeye” came from the Native Americans who noticed that the glossy, chestnut-brown seeds with the lighter circular “eye” looked very similar to the eye of a buck (male) deer. The nut is a glossy brown color and very smooth. The nuts are contained in a spiny hull until they ripen in September. The hull opens and they fall to the ground. Many times there are multiple nuts in a hull. Native Americans roasted, peeled and mashed the buckeye nut, which they called “Hetuck,” into a nutritional meal. Early travelers carried the rare buckeye to the east with them and reported its medicinal properties. The nut of the buckeye tree is also considered to be a good luck charm if you carry it in your pocket. The hulls start to fall and break open in September. In fourth grade, we study Ohio History and the Buckeye Tree is the official tree of our state! As you know, it's also a name synonymous with The Ohio State University, the college to which our school is closely located.
The Ohio State Tree
**Ohio Buckeye, Aesculus glabra**
Other information: also known a fetid buckeye, stinking buckeye. It is one of the first trees to leaf out in the spring and drops its leaves early in the fall. Fall leaf coloration is orange to red
Barrington students dig into world of recycling, reusing
By MELISSA DILLEY
Published: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 11:47 PM EDT
Barrington Elementary School students learned the meaning behind the reduce, reuse, recycle message on Thursday, Oct. 13 as part of the program's fourth annual Preservation Day.
- The day teaches students just another facet of their yearly essential question -- "How Can we Preserve tomorrow today?" -- to which every class throughout the year will be tied back.
- "This overarching theme lets us layer learning and have a field trip day here at school instead of shuttling all the kids to different places," said Katie Benton, a third-and-fourth grade teacher and the day's coordinator.
- "Our biggest hope on this day is for students to learn about protecting and observing our environment."
Students did take a field trip, though, to kick off the lesson. At the beginning of the school year, about 300 students traveled to Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio where they learned how landfills work.